Malware Monday won’t be as bad as anticipated

By Dakota Torres on 07/06/2012

People everywhere are hyping up the event on July 9th known as “Malware Monday.” The event will not be as scary as everyone is saying and the internet is not going to go out for everyone. Let me start off by explaining exactly what caused all of this. It all started when a couple of hackers released the DNS Changer virus which would redirect the browsers of infected computers and would also block the computer from downloading operating system updates or antivirus programs.

When the FBI found out about the scheme, they decided against shutting down the two infected servers since it would lose all the internet service for infected users. Instead, they brought in a private company to install two clean servers to provide internet access to the infected computers. The two servers that were set up to temporarily fix the problem will be shut down this Monday July 9th at 12:01 AM ET. Those with infected computers will not be able to translate web addresses into IP addresses thus they won’t be able to connect to the internet.

Don’t panic as the amount of infected computers is only estimated to be between 45,000-64,000 in the US and around 250,000 worldwide. This seems like a large number, but keep in mind there are between 1-2 billion computers worldwide so this number is actually very small. Internet service providers are also prepping to make sure the transition is smooth and that infected users can stay connected to the web. To find out if your computer is infected, visit this website. If it is, you can follow a few simple steps on the website to clean it up. If not, we’ll see you guys like any other Monday.